The European Spatial Development Perspective - What next?

In may 1999, ministers of the Member States of the European Union responsib le for spatial planning approved the European Spatial Development Perspecti ve (ESDP). The document is the product of Member States and the European Co mmission co-operating an the Committee on Spatial Development (CSD). The ES DP is the work of a snail band of European planners. Between them they have succeeded in putting European spatial development on the agenda. This is n o mean achievement. However, the visualization of spatial policies in the E SDP is weak. The Problem has not been lack of imagination but divergences b etween European planning traditions. Also, attitudes towards European plann ing cannot be divorced from those towards European integration. And, even i f there was consensus on the 'high polities' involved, planning in the Euro pean system of 'multi-level governance' raises difficult issues. The paper proposes strategies, not for 'solving' problems, the solution of which elud es us at present, but for sustaining the momentum. The first evolves around INTERREG II C (soon: INTERREG III B). There should be provisions for teasi ng out the implications far a future ESDP. Attention should focus on the 's patial visions' that some programmes include. A Northwest European cluster seems a good paint to start with. Another strategy is for the European Comm ission to make explicit its own views, if necessary specifying where the Co mmission differs from the Member States. These strategies should provide th e impetus for a sustained commitment to the ESDP process.